A Court of Bones & Sorrow (Lunaria Realms #2)

Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Samara

I’d expected things to be awkward between us in the morning, but they weren’t. We didn’t talk about what had happened, but things had definitely shifted between us.

Kieran would probably have mixed feelings about this new development. He was easygoing about a lot of things, but not when it came to people who had hurt me, and almost nobody had hurt me more than Vail. Considering I felt the same about him and Draven, I couldn’t really fault him for that. I had no idea how Roth and Alaric would react to Vail potentially entering our . . . thing.

My lips quirked into a wry grin. I didn’t know how the Velesians so easily navigated these multi-threaded relationships. Well, most Velesians. Poor Rynn was more lost than I was when it came to this type of thing.

“What are you thinking about?” Vail stretched out a hand to help me over a fallen log.

“Nothing.” I slipped my hand into his and gave him a sunny smile. He narrowed his eyes but didn’t call me out on my bullshit. It felt strange for him not to launch back a scathing remark. A girl could get used to this .

“If we’re to make it to the southern tip of Lake Malov by tomorrow morning, we need to travel a little further tonight.” We both looked up at the rapidly setting sun. “Rynn mentioned a cabin about twenty miles from here. It’s warded, which means we’ll have a safe place to stay tonight, and it’ll put us only a few miles from where we’re supposed to meet her.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. “Do you think we’ll run into the moon devils again?”

“No.” He shook his head. “We should be out of their territory by now, and they’re likely still recovering from whatever tore into them last night.”

“What do you think that was?” I asked. While I was glad whatever it was had shown up when it had, that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about there being a bigger and badder monster lurking out there—one that could be tracking us now.

Vail didn’t answer right away, and I didn’t push him as he pondered it. We wound our way through the trees that only grew thicker the further we pressed into Velesian land. The type of fauna changed as well. Along the coast, the trees were spread out a little more, and the other plants . . . well . . . they were devious. Particularly in the Moroi realm further south, everything was deceptively beautiful. The better to lure in unsuspecting prey so it could devour them.

The plant life of the Velesian realm hid nothing about its intentions though. We passed several trees that were weeping what looked like blood, and large, purple flowers stood upright from the ground—their six-foot-tall petals closed tight as something bulged in the center of them—likely digesting whatever they had caught last night with the black, thorny tentacles that slithered around their base.

Not for the first time, I was glad the Moroi had ended up where they had. The Velesian realm was twice the size of ours, but I was pretty sure my ass would have been eaten a long time ago if I lived here .

“Most of my concentration last night was spent on staying upright and not passing out.” Vail finally spoke. “I heard several loud cracks, which makes me think that whatever attacked the devils was large. Maybe attacked from above and broke some branches on the way down?” He shook his head, clearly not buying his own theory, and looked at me. “You didn’t see anything?”

“I was a little busy keeping your heavy ass moving.” I waved a hand at him. “Do you really need all those muscles?”

A squeal leapt from my throat as Vail grabbed me and picked me up like I weighed nothing at all before pinning me to a tree. He was so much taller than me that my feet were nowhere near the ground, so I wrapped my legs around his waist.

“I think you can benefit quite nicely from my muscles.” He grinned, and for a second, it took my breath away to see such a carefree look on his face instead of the usual scowl.

“Maybe you can show me later?” I gave him a heated smirk, and his eyes lit up. “We can see how sturdy the walls of that cabin are.”

Something roared in the distance, and a chorus of wolf howls answered it. Both of our heads whipped in the direction the sounds had come from, and Vail slowly set me back onto my feet. “The wolves are probably Velesians,” he said. “Most of the sentinels in this area are lycanthropes.”

We had rangers, the Velesians had sentinels, and the Furies didn’t have a dedicated fighting force. There simply weren’t enough of them to justify it. Instead, every single Furie was trained to fight, and they were all lethal.

More howls sounded.

“We need to move. They’re headed this way along with whatever they’re fighting.” He held his hand out, and I slipped mine into his once more. We took off at a steady jog, avoiding the more nefarious-looking fauna as we cut our way through the forest.

Only when the forest started to darken did we stop to rest. Unease rippled through me. I really didn’t want to spend another night traveling through the wilds, but I also knew we didn’t have a choice.

Vail tugged me to him and kissed me gently. I blinked up at him, still not used to this softer version of him, and part of me worried about how long it would last. Vail’s temper was volatile. I was bound to do something that would piss him off again. It had been bad enough when our friendship had ended as kids—I didn’t know how I would handle it now that we were more than just friends.

If Alaric were here, he would have lectured me. Kieran would have offered me chocolates to ease my concern while scowling at Vail, and Roth . . . They would tell me I was an idiot for getting involved with Vail and to sit on their face as punishment.

I missed them. All of them. My heart clenched. I’d almost died last night and could die tonight.

“Hey.” Vail tipped my chin up until I met his gaze. “We’ll get through this and I’ll get you back to them.”

“How’d you know I was thinking about them?” I rasped.

He smiled and kissed the corners of my mouth. “You’re easier to read than you think, especially when you’re thinking about the people you care about.”

We looked at each other for a long moment, neither of us willing to say anything else on that subject. Finally, Vail pulled his sword free and nodded at the daggers on my thigh. “We made good time today and aren’t too far now. The further inland we go, the less familiar I am with the terrain, but I think we have less than five miles until we reach the cabin.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it because I have no idea where we are right now,” I admitted. Vail smiled faintly and tapped the tree closest to us with his sword. I looked at where the tip of his blade rested and saw several markings carved into it. A wolf’s head followed by what looked like a lake with an arrow pointing in the direction we were facing. Below that, squiggly lines—waves maybe? That one had an arrow pointing back to where we’d come from.

Now that I knew it was there, it was incredibly helpful, but I never would have spotted it without Vail pointing it out.

“Lead the way.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat as the shadows around us darkened and the forest became more sinister. I took in a steady breath as magic flooded me. The sun had fully set. We just had to survive tonight, and then we’d get our answers tomorrow. I refused to even entertain the possibility that this had all been for nothing.

We would find answers at Lake Malov, though I was less sure we would like those answers.

Unlike the previous night, the woods around us were eerily silent. Nothing moved in the trees above us or in the thick underbrush, there were no howls or barks in the distance, and even the insects had ceased their chirping.

Vail kept scanning our surroundings, because something was clearly out there, and whatever it was, none of the other monsters wanted to mess with it. I concentrated on keeping my breathing steady and my fingers loose around the daggers, ready to throw at a moment’s notice.

It felt like we’d barely been walking more than a few minutes when Vail whirled and shoved me. Hard. I flew backwards, my back slamming into a tree before I fell to my knees. One dagger went flying from my hand, but I managed to hold on to the other. I staggered to my feet and froze when Vail’s pissed-off snarl rang throughout the night and the scent of his blood hit me a second later.

Five Strigoi stood completely still between me and Vail. Two of them were facing me, and the other three were facing Vail, one of which had blood dripping from long, jagged claws.

My heart clenched, and I wished we’d come across any other type of monster. Anything but Strigoi. I’d even take the more dangerous wraiths over this. I looked over the two who were focused on me, trying my best to keep my emotions in check. One of them had been a woman once. Her blonde hair hung in long, tangled knots down to her waist. Like the rest of them, she was completely naked, and her frame was so gaunt, I could almost count her ribs.

The one next to her was equally thin with dark brown hair. He looked like he’d turned when he’d been younger, eighteen at most.

At some point, they’d been living their lives just like me, trying to survive in this fucked-up world, when something had happened to make them lose their humanity and never find it again. Guilt bit at me. I didn’t know when they had turned, but I was a member of a powerful House. We should have done more.

I should have done more.

“I’m sorry,” I bit out. The words were meaningless, and they wouldn’t understand them anyway, but they were all I could offer.

Both of them looked at me with empty eyes. The hunger was all they felt now.

“Blood,” the blonde female rasped.

“Don’t run,” Vail commanded. He backed away, and the three Strigoi watching him stepped with him, further away from me. “Just stay alive. Whatever you have to do, Sam, fucking do it.”

If I ran, they would chase me, and unlike many of the monsters that roamed Lunaria, they would catch me. Even if I embraced my bloodlust to its full potential, it wouldn’t be enough. They were nothing but bloodlust. It made them stronger and faster than any Moroi. The blade felt so heavy in my hand, but I gripped it tighter, and the male Strigoi caught the movement, his lips curling in a silent snarl, revealing his long fangs.

They can’t be brought back , I reminded myself. It still felt like I was killing my own kind, but we didn’t have a choice. Either we kill them or they kill us.

And I wouldn’t be dying here tonight.

With no warning, the female Strigoi dove forward, trying to slash my throat with her claws. I twisted to the side, barely avoiding her attack. My blade kissed her throat, and blood sprayed, but she didn’t even notice.

My instincts screamed at me and I whirled, shoving my dagger forward, sinking it into the chest of the male Strigoi. He snarled inches from my face, and then something slammed into my side, ripping me away from the male Strigoi while also tearing the blade from my hand.

I landed on my back, the female Strigoi on top of me. She lunged forward, her fangs bared, and I shoved her to the side but not far enough—instead of her ripping out my throat, she bit deep into my shoulder. A scream ripped out of me as I tried to push her off me, but the male was there immediately. He wrenched my left arm to the side and then tore into my arm.

Bites from a Strigoi were nothing like the ones from a Moroi. These two were feral in the way they bit, their fangs constantly shifting and piercing my skin over and over as they greedily gulped down my blood. I could hear Vail roaring, trying to fight his way to me.

He wouldn’t make it though, not before these two sucked me dry.

The male Strigoi still had my arm pinned down, but the female Strigoi had shifted to get a better angle, so my right arm was no longer pinned beneath her. I felt my own nails harden into claws, and I shoved my hips up as hard as I could. It did nothing to dislodge the male, but the female reared back and screamed into my face.

I shoved two fingers directly into her left eye.

She shrieked, and I fought the urge to clamp my hands over my ears. This time when I shoved her, she moved, crashing into the Strigoi who had been frantically drinking from my arm. The two of them went down in a snarling pile of fangs and tangled limbs.

I scrambled back and twisted, trying to shove myself up, but my arm gave out. Then my vision darkened as pain laced up my entire body. I tried again using only my right arm and managed to get to my feet. I blinked several times, trying to clear my vision, but it barely helped. Blood flowed from the wounds on my shoulder and arm. The Strigoi had really chewed the fuck out of me.

“Daggers,” I mumbled. “Need weapons.”

Before I took a step, both of the Strigoi were rising, still snapping at each other, but my hopes of them taking each other out vanished. The female Strigoi’s left eye was nothing but a bloody socket, but her remaining one was locked on me.

I took a step back and swayed slightly. Shit. How much blood had I lost? Too much. The answer was too fucking much.

A flash of silver caught my attention, and I looked towards Vail’s fight with the three Strigoi just in time to see the head of one of them slide off its shoulders. The smell of blood permeated the air, both ours and theirs. Something glinted in the moonlight on the ground to my right.

The dagger I had dropped at the beginning of the attack.

I started to move towards it before realizing how monumentally stupid I was being. Flinging my hands out to my sides, I called the daggers to me. Both of them obediently leapt to my palms, one still stained with the Strigoi’s blood.

If we survived this, Vail was going to give me so much shit for creating these fun little blood daggers and forgetting to fucking use them.

The male Strigoi cocked his head in a move that was so different from how Moroi moved, it sent chills down my spine. His nostrils flared wide as he breathed in my scent before he stalked towards me. The female Strigoi was struggling a little with depth perception, and her movements had lost some of their fluidity. She jerked forward, a low snarl vibrating from her throat.

My vision started to waver again, blackness seeping in at the edges.

Don’t pass out. Don’t pass out. Don’t fucking pass out . I chanted the words over and over in my mind, the motto the only thing keeping me standing.

The two Strigoi moved farther apart, forcing me to split my attention.

I spun around slowly, trying to keep them both in my line of sight but they were on opposite sides now, so I couldn’t guard against one without turning my back on the other.

Without any warning, the male Strigoi leapt at me, fangs bared and claws aimed at my neck. A snarl at my back told me the female was moving in too, and in that split second, I knew I was going to die. I raised the dagger to meet the male, wanting to at least take him out and give Vail a fighting chance at surviving all of this.

Then a whistling sound raced through the air, followed by two loud cracks. I dove to the side, and the two headless bodies of the Strigoi who’d been attacking me crashed into each other before falling to the ground, their heads spinning through the air before landing a few feet away.

Two long, dark, slender shapes moved on the ground, the last couple of feet of each lined with bloodred, serrated edges. I leapt to my feet from where I’d landed on my ass and stared at the tall figure wrapped in a black cloak .

Bright red eyes peered out from underneath the hood. They looked me over once, eyes glowing brighter at each of the wounds I bore, before he snarled and sprinted to where Vail was still squaring off against one Strigoi.

So this was the beast Draven hid beneath that charming prince exterior.

Another loud crack rang through the air. Then the thud of a body hitting the ground.

I looked down at the corpses of the Strigoi who had attacked me and offered them a silent prayer to find peace in whatever afterlife greeted them.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Vail growled in a low, dangerous voice. Knowing exactly what that tone meant, I raced over and slid between the two males before they decided not enough blood had been spilt tonight.

I had a very logical argument prepared about how we needed to work together to get to safety. Unfortunately, my body realized we’d survived the fight, and the adrenaline started to fade. Blood coated every inch of my clothing, the wound on my shoulder and arm still bleeding profusely, and the darkness that had been trying to claim me for the last ten minutes finally won the battle.

The last thing I remembered before passing out was Draven snatching me before I hit the ground, his eyes still a sea of blood. “Don’t worry, love. I’ll always catch you.”